A Waken 15.7.T.1
Claire did get us close.
Toronto is a very different place from Brockton Bay or New York. Brockton Bay is run down, like a city constantly on the edge of collapse. New York can appear cramped or open, eclectic even. A consequence of a city ravaged and rebuilt twice. Toronto in comparison is clean and smooth. Stone buildings of varying age and styles arranged into a scenic skyline.
And then there was Dragon's workshop.
It wasn't hard to spot, honestly.
We came through the portal about two blocks away. The structure stood out, a series of lots, warehouses, and office buildings surrounded by a solid wall. They didn't look like the ho-dum buildings from Brockton Bay either. They looked modern and advanced.
"That's it?" I asked.
"Yes," Armsmaster answered.
I nodded and motioned to Aisha. "Jump on, both of you."
It was an awkward but short flight. I could cradle Aisha in an arm easily enough. Armsmaster needed to hang from the back while I bent a leg to offer footing.
We started off in an alley, but as soon as I directed Exia into the air people below took notice. First I was in New York, someone probably caught a glimpse of me around the lake, now I was in Toronto. People were definitely going to wonder how I'd gotten around so quickly in only thirty minutes.
That was a problem for later.
I set my eyes on the compound. Dragon's icon—a dragon's head, obviously—and the Guild symbol marked the side. It was a spear with a long ribbon flowing from the top and spiralling around to the base and—
"Someone's here," I realized.
I didn't see it from a distance. As we drew closer, I noticed the police line. Cruisers and SWAT vehicles encompassed the front gates. Ambulances were there too, with people streaming from inside.
"What's all that?" Aisha asked.
"This facility produces a number of items that Dragon sells to the PRT and telecommunication companies under a limited license," Armsmaster explained. "She maintains several hundred employees on the grounds."
"Some of them are hurt," I noted. I couldn't make out much, but I saw bandages and cradled limbs. "We're not stopping."
"There isn't time," Armsmaster agreed. "Local authorities can handle evacuation."
"Where are the PRT guys?" Aisha asked. "I don't see any."
"That"—Armsmaster tensed in my rear view camera—"is a good question. Dive for the ground there." He pointed. "We can disembark and enter the east building. Dragon's personal workshop is in the basement."
I nodded and had only just started to turn when the missiles fired.
They launched straight up and arced toward me. With Aisha in my shield arm, I could only aim my pistol and fire. Pink beams streaked through the air, and the missiles began to dodge.
Too fast and too close.
I cursed, adjusting my aim and focusing on the missile to the right. Three quick shots followed by a fourth. The missile spun and swerved, avoiding the first three beams and colliding with the last.
It exploded and I bucked Exia to throw Armsmaster into the air. He grunted and sailed over my suit as I let it drop. I grabbed and cradled him to Exia's chest, then swung my suit around.
The second missile got within ten feet of us and exploded.
Aisha screamed and Armsmaster scrambled to get a hold as the blast rolled over my suit. The force knocked me aside, sending us into a tumble. Throwing both legs out, the thrusters fired and landed hard. Armsmaster jumped off Exia and rolled while I used both arms to shield Aisha.
The lasers started firing instantly.
"Aisha," I called. "Power!"
Armsmaster rolled to his feet and broke into a run, sprinting for the building.
I raised my shield to cover my flank and pulled the longsword from my waist. The blade opened and extended, and I simply shot before looking. The lasers peppered my armor. My first return shots missed but once I got my head straight I managed some degree of accuracy.
Even then, something was off.
You're not here to die.
I grit my teeth, unsure how true that was or if I wanted to even remotely trust my own opinion on how much of a gamble I was taking.
I fired again and skated backwards, hovering just a few inches over the ground. Using the rear cameras I lined myself up to cover Armsmaster's flank. He swung his weapon, the head detaching and cleaving into a turret directly ahead of him. Vaguely in the distance I saw people running from other doorways, covered by a pair of capes and PRT troopers.
That answered that question.
They noticed me, but none moved in my direction.
That suited me just fine. I didn't have to worry about anyone being trapped inside or the PRT getting in my way.
Armsmaster withdrew the head of his halberd and twisted his grip on the weapon. The head opened and expanded, a red mist spilling from vents along the blade.
I forgot about that.
He swung his weapon through the door in front of him and then shouldered through it.
Continuing to return fire on the turrets, I finally managed to hit one. It exploded and I turned my aim on another. I did a bit better this time. Beams struck it twice and blew the weapon off its mounting.
I reached the doorway myself and pulled Exia's legs up.
It was a bit cramped inside, but I could move. "Are you okay?"
"Fine," Armsmaster answered.
I paused, looking around with an overbearing sense that I'd forgotten something.
Aisha appeared between us. "I. Did not. Scream. Got it?"
I looked down at her. "If you say so."
"I do," she insisted. "So, what now? Oh, none of those gun things shot at me by the way. So you know, maybe they can't see me."
At least there was that.
"We can reach the first of Dragon's backup generators down this hall," Armsmaster explained. He reached for his belt and produced a series of small discs. He held them out to Aisha. "I believe destroying it will be sufficient. Simply plant these and run away from the device. I will indicate them to Newtype, but you can act on any we cannot reach."
Aisha stared at the devices. "So, I get to blow shit up and it's one hundred percent legal?"
"No one cares," Armsmaster and I agreed.
Aisha grinned. "Best team-up ever."
I looked up and down the hall, reminded more of the Rig than my factory. Pipes and power cables ran along the ceiling, and the lights were set in the corners. The place did look higher-tech, but mostly industrial or utilitarian in layout. I could actually spot exactly which cables were power cables because it was all labeled clearly.
"Is there exterior power?"
"Yes, but we can sever that from the inside."
Armsmaster started forward. I motioned for Aisha to follow and covered them as the door faded into the distance behind us. I came about and started trying to reprogram the HUD.
Being distracted wasn't enough to make my aim that bad.
Veda.
I never realized how much I relied on her before. Not that I didn't want to rely on her, but it was a serious design flaw. She made adjustments on the fly in ways I'd never even noticed. Did she even notice?
I'd have to start patching everything to solve that problem.
As we went down the hall, a turret started to turn toward us. It clattered as it started to face us, then kept clicking as it failed to completely turn. As we drew closer, I noticed the damage to the base of the machine. Something had punched a huge dent into it, stopping the turret's ability to fully turn.
"Someone's already here," I realized.
Armsmaster scowled. "We need to hurry."
He turned right and I followed.
We passed the first of the generator rooms he wanted us to disable, and sure enough someone beat us to it.
"Does anyone else know about Dragon?" I asked.
"I can think of one group that almost certainly would," he replied, already sprinting down the hall.
Cauldron. "Get behind me."
I forced Exia forward rather than wait for a response. Slipping in front of him, I raised my shield and quickly finished toying around with the stabilizers and compressors. Without the Full Armor, I only had the Seven Swords—except for the khatars which couldn't fit under the extra armor—and I wasn't sure how many options that left me.
We kept going down the hall until Armsmaster pointed to a stairway
"So I just remembered this," Aisha said as we turned toward the stairs. "While I was in New York, I saw Grime and Cinereal vanish off with a teleporter to try and figure out what was going on."
"Grime?" I asked.
"The ice bitch."
"Rime," Armsmaster corrected. He looked ahead to me. "Cauldron?"
I grimaced. "Pretty sure."
"Yeah," Aisha continued. "They were shady as fuck on a scale of one to ten. They said something about going to Triumph because he knew about Dragon." Armsmaster flinched at the name and I grimaced. "Yeah I guess maybe I should have mentioned that earlier?"
"Maybe," I growled. What could Triumph possibly know about Dragon?
"They seem to have come to a similar conclusion as I did," Armsmaster presumed. "Though I'm not sure their intentions are the same as ours."
The people who created the Case-53s, were willing to kill to keep secrets, and had abused Dragon's restrictions for their own gain in the past? Probably a good guess. People solely focused on minimizing risk might stop whatever was happening, but that didn't mean they wanted to save Dragon.
We continued down a flight of stairs into a sub-level and found another one of the backup generators already disabled, along with more security devices. Dragon's security actually put mine to shame. We might have had real trouble going through it ourselves.
Instead, we just followed the trail of destruction through the facility.
I slowed at the sound of fighting ahead. Shouting and lasers. Planting Exia's feet firmly on the ground, I proceeded forward at a slow pace until I reached the doorway.
"—ke that side! Cover Gigabyte! Ariel— "
"That's Rime," Armsmaster confirmed in a low voice.
I nodded. It sounded like there had to be at least four of them. Rime, Gigabyte, Ariel, and someone else. Might be better to assume five or six.
Raising my shield and aiming my pistol forward, I started to step towards the room...
Armsmaster stepped in front of me.
"You're not in the right mind to fight," he said. "I'll deal with them. Wait for a chance and force your way to Dragon's servers. I'm certain they're beyond this room, down a hall on the right."
I didn't bother to ask how he was certain. He'd probably been here before. If Dragon had a main computer, it was a good guess that that computer was her main hardware.
I didn't want to leave him behind though. "I'm not—"
"You're shaken. I can see it. So will they. We do not know if they are interested in pulling punches."
"He's right." Aisha appeared behind me, scowling. "Even I noticed it."
I wanted to protest, but it died in my throat. Apparently, everyone could read me today. From strangers, to world ending monsters, to old enemies turned friends, and a fourteen year old who was probably accurately described as socially unconscious.
"Focus on Dragon," Armsmaster insisted. "I'm uncertain how you can do it, but if their plan is the same as ours they'll cut power soon to shut down Dragon's servers. If you isolate them from outside energy and then restore power—"
"Veda," I realized, finishing his thought.
Shit. How would we hold this place? We couldn't move Dragon anytime soon. I'd bet her hardware was too bulky to be teleported or doored out.
He was right.
If we didn't want anyone taking Dragon we needed to hold here for a time.
We needed to free Veda. Once she didn't need to actively protect Dragon anymore, she could load into Queen and bring it here. I was certain she could figure out everything that was going on fast. I could explain Doormaker. With Vista's power surrounding the factory, we didn't need the GN Drives anymore.
Actually, she could load into Queen and Kyrios and bring them both here. The Tierens too, maybe Trevor's Gundam if the factory was safe enough. If we forced a stalemate, Cauldron would at least lose their chance to do anything shady and there'd be time to negotiate Dragon's fate.
"Okay," I demurred.
"They already did the generator stuff," Aisha mumbled sadly, probably disappointed she no longer got to blow shit up. "Guess I'll help out the guy with the beard. Not much I can do about downloading Dragon from the mainframe or anything."
Shit, Aisha was trying to make me feel better.
I really was fucked.
A Waken 15.
Aisha let her concentration drop and strolled forward.
Armsmaster wasn't wrong. Something was off with Taylor and it seemed pretty bad.
Trailing along a few feet behind the guy, she wondered when this became so complicated.
After all this time, she'd hoped to have the chance to stab Teacher in a kidney or two. Instead, she spent most of her time spying, hiding Mom's drugs in increasingly absurd locations, managing Brian's constant worrying, and not doing much stabbing.
Well, she was probably going to get some stabbing now.
Following behind Beardmaster, she caught up and peered over the railing. The room beyond looked like an assembly line for something. Boxes of circuits. Weird vials of liquid and meaty bits. Tinker stuff.
About a half dozen capes were scattered over the room. Of them, Aisha only recognized Rime. No sign of Cinereal. Lame. The rest of them Aisha didn't recognize. A pair of tinkers by the looks of their armor. Someone who could fly hovering next to Rime in the air. A big guy in bulky armor. One guy in a tight yellow suit that looked pretty damn lame.
"Rime." Armsmaster's voice echoed through the room, and the capes all snapped their heads around. The beardmaster shouldered his weapon and looked down at them. "Why are you here?"
Heads turned toward Rime. Apparently, they hadn't been expecting company. Stupid. Always expect company. Aisha had only been at this for a few months and she already knew shit always went sideways. Always.
"You can drop the stature," Rime said. She flew a little closer, hands raised. "I know you were just trying to protect Newtype."
Armsmaster remained in his 'stature.'
Rime frowned. "We know she didn't do anything wrong. She's being set up. We can clear that up when the crisis is over." She glanced past him, but Taylor had remained around a corner and far enough down it that the light from Exia was hidden.
"How did you get here?" the ice cape asked. "Even Newtype's suits aren't fast enough to get here from New York in a half hour."
"How did you get here?" Armsmaster retorted.
Rime gave no answer.
Yeah, that sounded about right. Maybe they knew Taylor hadn't done nothing, but they didn't trust her. To be fair, Taylor wasn't going to trust them either.
No one here trusted each other. Too much bad shit.
Aisha glanced to her right and started toward the stairs. She whistled a tune for herself, looking at the halls at the end of the room. There was more than one.
"Think you can stay hidden Blackie?"
"Pretty sure," the Haro said.
"Aight. I'm gonna drop you over there. Go figure out which way all the computers and stuff are so Taylor knows where to go."
"Why are you here?" Rime asked.
"Why wouldn't I be here?" Armsmaster asked back.
Again, there was a bit of a pause.
Aisha picked up her pace, going down the stairs and checking over her shoulder. There were more of those gun turrets around but they were trashed. She went past one, dropping Black on the ground out of sight.
"Get going."
"On it!"
With that, Aisha ran toward the opposite side of the room. She'd gotten used to being unseen by people, though it kind of irked her. Her power could feel real ironic at times.
She'd never been an attention whore or anything, but she liked making her presence known. Her clothes and her words… Probably some Freudian thing or something. Mom could be pretty inattentive.
Now, unless she concentrated, nobody saw her.
At least that came with advantages.
Walking over to the closest tinker, Aisha started examining all the bits of his armor. Smooth stuff. No exposed wires or cords she could see. Although, there were a few joints.
"Gigabyte," Armsmaster greeted, looking at the tinker Aisha had been examining, as she looked over the room for something long and thin.
Besides her knife.
"Ariel." That was the flying cape. "Breakout. Charger." Those would be the two capes nearest the way Taylor needed to go. The second tinker was named, "Cybrex."
Taking a piece of scrap off the floor, Aisha measured it and nodded. Long enough. One end was appropriately jagged. Should stab pretty good.
She whistled her way back to Gigabyte.
Ariel spoke up. "Where's Newtype, Armsmaster? Is she okay?"
"Why are you here?" Armsmaster asked again. "And what do you plan to do with Dragon after you've secured her?"
"Straight to the point," Aisha mumbled without notice.
She looked at Gigabyte's armor again, namely the little bit right under the ass. Fortunately he didn't have a nice one, so this wouldn't make her feel too guilty.
Rime stared at him and said nothing.
"A bridge you'll cross when you get to it then," Armsmaster determined. He unshouldered his halberd and casually stepped forward. "As I expected."
Rime tensed, as did Static and Breakout. The other capes in the room looked confused.
"Armsmaster," Rime warned with a raised hand. "You're not in trouble. You were trying to protect Newtype from false accusations. We get that and we'll sort it out later but right now things are going haywire."
"I am aware."
"People's lives are at risk. Once we take Dragon offline—"
"I will handle that myself."
"I'm ordering you to stand down."
"I suspect I will be resigning soon."
Taylor chose then to fly down the hall, do a flip, and then sprint toward the middle hall at the bottom of the room. Black waved to her from atop the conveyor leading down that hall and she picked him up as she went.
Good robot.
"Newtype?!" Charger called. Taylor ignored him and raced down the corridor.
Eh, as good a time as any.
With a good solid thrust, Aisha jammed the jagged end of the scrap into the gap just below Gigabyte's buttocks. The man screamed like a girl and started hopping on one leg. Aisha shrugged, swung her leg out, and tripped him. He screamed like a girl when he hit the ground too.
One tinker down.
Now, how about the other—
Armsmaster's halberd swung down, launching the head through the air. The other tinker—Cybrex or whatever—held out an arm. The head's blade scraped over his gauntlet, and he drew a pistol from his waist with his other hand. Armsmaster's free arm expanded into a shield as the cape took aim.
The head snapped and reversed direction, drawing in on a line and catching the cape in the shoulder. The guy grunted and slid a foot forward to maintain his balance. Then he started sparking, convulsing, and shaking as bolts of visible current coursed from Armsmaster's weapon into him.
Capes started moving and Aisha met the ground as one of them inadvertently hit her in the shoulder. Figured. Invisibility as a superpower and she still gets knocked down and lands on her tits.
Pushing herself up, Aisha set her eyes on the yellow cape as he raced away from her in a blur. Super speed, huh? She should probably do something about that.
"Damnit Armsmaster," Rime cursed. "You can't fight all of us! This is insane!"
Armsmaster drew his weapon back and looked at her. His helmet closed over his face, sealing him inside the armor and he stepped over the railing to drop to the floor. He landed with a thud and rose up.
"Hm."
...
Aisha decided to get an Armsmaster poster. If he died, it would be worth a shit ton after this. Hopefully he didn't, though. But if he did...
Rime darted forward, shards of ice forming in the air around her. "What are you going to do? Guard this place against the entire Protectorate?!"
"I'm told I can be quite stubborn." Armsmaster swiped his halberd through the air. "I believe defiant of my limitations was on my last performance review."
Shards of ice shattered and sprayed as Rime fired them from the air around her. Charger zipped behind Armsmaster and swung a punch but the halberd was already arcing up from the ground. The cape moved, and Armsmaster spun out of the way of a follow up before striking back with a fist to the thigh.
Charger retreated in a blur and Rime continued her assault.
The big guy—Breakout—and Ariel were slower to react.
"Yeah," Aisha agreed. "It's been one of those days."
Scrambling away from the tinker writhing on the ground behind her, Aisha sprinted down the room and hopped over a conveyor belt. Cybrex hit the ground after taking a shot from the super-taser or whatever but it seemed like a good idea to make sure he stayed down.
Armsmaster did give her explosives.
And she didn't need them to blow up generators or anything anymore.
Taking one of the disks, Aisha pressed the button at the center and slid it under the conveyor belt beside the fallen tinker.
"I'm just figuring Armsmaster wouldn't give me anything too cool," she said despite no one being able to hear her. "So, sorry if I'm wrong!"
Aisha ran and ten seconds later a small explosion shook the ground. Cybrex got thrown across the floor, armor audibly cracking against one of the legs holding up the next conveyor over. She watched him for a moment, and at the sight of weak movement she mulled over the other bomb-disks she had.
"Can't do much about you," she muttered as Breakout ran through one of the conveyors without stopping or stumbling. Bits of metal and machinery scattered across the floor, and he kept going while Armsmaster tangled with Charger and Rime.
Charger did knock her on her boobs.
Aisha grinned. "Fair is fair!"
Armsmaster dropped to a knee. Breakout's fist slammed into his shield and the metal groaned.
"Breakout," Rime called. "Pin him! Charger, go catch up to Newtype—"
Armsmaster pointed his halberd and the head fired into Charger's chest as he moved. The man tumbled, rolling over his side and Aisha pounced.
The blast from before hadn't been that strong.
Pressing the buttons on two of the disks, she slapped one on the ground in front of Charger and then another on the ground behind him. She ran past him, whistling to herself while the seconds counted down.
The explosion threw Charger over the floor and then into the air as the second one went off.
You'd think people would question random explosions. If they did, they kept it to themselves. Charger did manage to push himself up and get his feet under him, slowly.
Aisha groaned and started toward him again. "Obviously I'm being too generous."
His power might be super speed, but apparently he didn't recover from being dazed faster than anyone else. Armsmaster rolled away from Breakout behind her, grunting as a shard of ice hit him in the shoulder. He drew his halberd back and punched the brute.
It didn't seem to do much.
"Give me a sec," Aisha yelled. "I'm working on it!"
Ariel flew overhead, saying something about how they needed to stop and deal with the problem.
Pulling her knife from her belt, Aisha bent over and swung the blade over the back of Charger's knee. He hissed and stumbled to the ground.
"Sorry!"
She swung again as he lashed out with a wide punch in the direction of the pain, cutting across his opposite thigh. Then with the opportunity given, she put a hand on one side of his head and shot her knee into his temple.
She seemed to remember Dad saying something to Brian about never fighting dirty but Aisha didn't really care about that. So, she hit him twice for good measure. And then a third time. Just to be sure.
"Again. So sorry!"
Charger collapsed to the ground and Aisha stepped on his stomach before jumping over the conveyor.
Armsmaster's shoulder was frozen over, and the ice was spreading. He was warding off Breakout while Rime circled, shooting more ice shards at him and the ground around him. Ariel finally decided to get into the fight and dove, swiping a fist at his head.
With a sudden surge of movement, Armsmaster bent backwards, grabbed her wrist and swung her around into Breakout. He slammed the base of his weapon into the ground and a surge of fire exploded from it.
"Oh shit!" Aisha whispered in shock as she came to a stop.
The fire blasted out in a huge wave and the ice evaporated into a light haze that spread over the room. It felt hot and cold to Aisha's exposed skin, and Rime looked visibly surprised when Armsmaster's jetpack fired up and tossed him right at the woman. He tackled her and drove her into a wall.
She hit with a grunt, and ice started spreading instantly.
It turned to steam and mist just as fast. Heat radiated from Armsmaster's weapon, rippling through the air. When the pair slid down the wall to the floor, the tinker rolled the other cape under him and landed on her like a pillow.
He pulled something from his belt and slapped it onto her chest. Aisha wondered if he'd actually copped a feel until she noticed the triangular flashing thing. Rime noticed it, a hand going for the device before it flashed and heat started blasting over her. She shuddered, rising into the air as Armsmaster moved away and nodded, apparently satisfied.
"Unfortunately," the tinker said. "I'm treating everyone close to Alexandria as a threat." He turned toward Breakout and Ariel. "I've had weeks to prepare."
Aisha was starting to wonder if he needed her help at all. "Definitely getting that Armsmaster poster."
He shifted towards Breakout and Ariel while Rime tried to pry the device off her chest. It kept radiating heat, and whenever she tried to use her power all she made was mist. She did manage to fly, but that wasn't getting the whatever-it-was off her chest.
Ariel started to move, circling around Armsmaster to go to Rime.
Armsmaster switched his halberd to his other hand and raised the newly freed fist. Pylons shot from the wrist of his gauntlet and a mist blasted out in a massive wave. Ariel covered her ears and screamed, tumbling to the ground below and landing on one of the conveyors.
"And then there was one," Aisha hummed. "Hot shit."
The pylons withdrew and Armsmaster continued toward the brute. "I wasn't expecting you, but I'll think of something."
And Breakout pussed out.
He held his hands up. "I'm not going to stop you. Just let me check on everyone else."
Armsmaster settled his halberd on his shoulder, thinking.
"Well… How 'bout that?" Aisha turned with a grin.
The grin faded and she froze.
She didn't have a lot of cape posters, but she had a few.
"Oh fuck." Aisha spun on her heel, concentrating to make herself visible. "Armsmaster!"
His head snapped in her direction then followed her already pointing finger.
He barely avoided the swing as Black Kaze swung for his leg.
Or Kaze or whatever, since she joined the Guild. Fuck, the Super Sentai TV show used to be so cool.
Armsmaster reacted at the near to last second, bringing his halberd around and blocking the blade with the haft. "Kaze!"
She was behind him already, sword swinging again. The blade slid over his armor but Aisha saw a few metal bits clatter to the floor. Armsmaster stumbled forward and turned, blocking another blow but taking a second on his shoulder.
"Kaze!" he snapped. "I'm here to protect Dragon!"
She didn't reply—the silent treatment was her thing—and simply swung her sword again.
Wait.
Aisha blinked, noticing multiple gouges across Armsmaster's armor. Lines of scored metal, scraps in the paint, and even a crack in his visor. How many times did she hit him?
"Kaze!" Armsmaster said again, holding a hand up defensively.
"Yeah," Aisha commiserated. "That's not gonna work."
Kaze started to swing again. Armsmaster's hand flashed out, pressing against the pommel of her sword and holding it back. From the look in her eyes, she did not like that.
Right. She swung her sword and teleported, and she could cut stuff up while teleporting. No swinging sword, no cutting. That made sense.
Up until Kaze released the weapon entirely, grabbed a shorter blade from her other side and swung that. All so fast Armsmaster could only slam his shoulder into hers. She vanished and appeared on his side, a new scar on Armsmaster's armor.
"Okay, I'm gonna have to do something now," Aisha grumbled.
While she started running, Armsmaster fired that shockwave thing from his forearm again. Kaze vanished and reappeared about ten feet away. Armsmaster fired again and that's when Breakout decided to renege on the ceasefire and tackled Armsmaster from behind.
"Foul!"
Kaze swung her shortsword again. She moved behind Armsmaster and Breakout, picking up her longsword with her free hand. Then she swung both weapons and Armsmaster tried to retreat as new slashes appeared on his chest. Breakout stumbled the other way. Kaze stood between them, a blade pointed at each of them.
Aisha stopped and stared. "When did this become a three-way?"
Or, if she counted Teacher and the Simurgh, did it count as a four-way? Five-way? She still wasn't sure exactly where Tats and the Swedes were falling.
Counting the last of the bombs Armsmaster gave her, Aisha shrugged. "Fuck it. I like things simple."
She kicked Gigabyte in the jaw as she ran. Couldn't have him getting up now.
Breakout made the first move of the stalemate. Of course he did. Swords didn't do anything to him. Kaze swung and appeared behind him. The only one who got hurt was Armsmaster. He dropped to a knee as part of the plating over his leg was cut away. Breakout swung wide and he kicked off the wall to avoid the blow as the brute nearly hit him on its way to strike Kaze.
Running behind the woman, Aisha reached out with the bombs just as she swung and vanished. Armsmaster's jetpack fired, throwing him into the air. Kaze's swing apparently missed him and she turned her attention to Breakout.
Aisha got around him and pressed the button.
She slapped the disk against Kaze's thigh. "Sorry about this, I'm a big fa—Shit!"
Kaze's eyes snapped down and Aisha's heart jumped for a moment. She scrambled back, feeling the wind on her face as a slash scoured through the floor.
"What's the point of being invisible if you assholes keep finding a way around it!?" she screamed.
Kaze's gaze looked lower, noticing the bomb as it beeped. Breakout swung his fist down as she swung her sword. She crouched behind him, and there wasn't a boom.
"The fuck did you do?" Aisha asked. "Cut it? Fuck, you're cool." She sighed and weighed her remaining two bombs. "I can't hate you. Still gonna need to blow you up though…"
Breakout kept an eye on Kaze and Armsmaster, looking more confused than either of them. Armsmaster was on his feet and was firing that blast-wave thing at Ariel again. He hit Rime at the same time, dazing them both. From there he stumbled some more, favoring the leg Kaze didn't cut.
Shit, was he bleeding?
"Put me on the clock, why don't you," Aisha complained.
She jumped up, climbing onto Breakout's shoulders and slapped a bomb against his ear. He might be a brute, but a boom right in your ear? That had to hurt.
Dropping down, she ran away right as the explosion ripped through the air and slammed Breakout onto his chest. Armsmaster jumped at the opportunity, literally. His jetpack ignited and he swung his halberd down onto the brute's shoulder. Lightning coursed from the head, shocking through the brute to no effect.
Breakout was slow though.
He stumbled, hand covering his ear as he weakly swiped at Armsmaster. Armsmaster swung his halberd over his back, apparently anticipating that Kaze would appear behind him. Her blade slid over his weapon and there were three other scores in the pole.
There was also a gash on his side.
Armsmaster dropped to a knee again with an audible huff.
"Shit fuck."
One bomb left.
Aisha weighed it as Armsmaster stepped away, swung his halberd around and then launched some kind of dart at Breakout. Kaze dodged his halberd, and Armsmaster lunged the opposite direction. He struck Breakout's knee but, being a brute, that didn't do much.
The dart popped into a weird mist. Aisha had a hard time seeing it in the mist already floating around. Breakout breathed some of the new haze in and then he just dropped. Like a rock.
Armsmaster stood up shakily, turning to face Kaze. "I'm not here to hurt Dragon," he repeated. "I'm here to help her."
Kaze again stayed silent, blades held out and ready.
Fortunately, Aisha knew better than to stand and gawk. She slapped her last bomb on the floor at Kaze's feet, pushed herself away and watched it explode. Frankly, putting it on her was probably a bad idea to begin with.
Kaze stumbled back from the blast, wiping smoke from her eyes. Armsmaster barreled through the smoke and tackled her. He knocked the shorter sword from her hand, punched her in the face, and then grabbed her wrist before she could swing the longsword.
"Kaz—"
She butted his helmet with her forehead. Armsmaster grunted in response.
Then his knee went into her stomach, his elbow into the side of her head, and Aisha kicked her in the chest on the way down. Just in case.
Aisha threw her hands up and concentrated. "Two vs seven! Best team-up ever!"
"Is Breakout breathing?" Armsmaster asked between heavy breaths.
Breathing? Aisha leaned over. "Um, yeah. I think so. Why?"
"I was uncertain that formula wouldn't be lethal."
Damn. Talk about—
Armsmaster collapsed and Aisha blinked.
"Beardmaster?" He heaved, a hand going to his side and coming back redder than normal. "Oh shit, how bad are—"
Wait.
Aisha turned, grimacing.
These days, Kaze didn't go anywhere, without—
A Waken 15.7.T.2
"Narwhal."
I came to a stop abruptly.
Her distinctive horn extended from her forehead, a crown atop a mane of long pale hair. Shimmering light shrouded her figure, purple in color but multi-colored at the edges. She looked a little bruised on one shoulder, but it was hard to see with how the light bent over her body.
She gave me the same bored expression she always wore.
"Newtype. How'd you get here?"
I blinked and then remembered the situation. Was she here with Cauldron?
I raised my shield and drew my longsword.
"Don't do that," she cautioned. "Dragon would be upset if I had to hurt you."
"I'm not letting you take her," I warned.
"I'm not letting anyone take her," she replied. With that, she turned and started walking toward the console on the far side of the room. "I keep my promises."
I blinked.
We were in the middle of a vast chamber. As I expected, Dragon's hardware was a bit too big to just up and move. There were about twenty server towers, each the size of a small car. They were arrayed along the floor below while the hallway Black indicated led me to a platform over them. There were a few small consoles and fuse boxes. Those were destroyed.
I gathered that Narwhal had smashed them up on her way in.
Lowering my guard, I remembered that the Guild wasn't the Protectorate. A lot of the former were also the latter, but Narwhal ran things her own way. And she was supposed to be Dragon's friend.
"You're here to save her?" I asked.
"I'm here to keep my promise." She looked over the console and raised her hand.
In a flash the metal and glass were torn open and apart by crossing force fields that cut through them like butter.
"What—"
She turned her hand on the closest server she could see, fifteen feet down below us.
"NO!"
I charged, blasting into the air and firing my longsword. A shield rose between us and Narwhal ignored me outright as shields ripped the server apart.
"What are you doing!?" I screamed. I swung my sword at the shield. It bowed but held. "You're killing her!"
For a moment, Narwhal's bored expression broke and she looked sad. "I know."
She turned her hand on another server and it tore apart into splinters.
I slipped back, unfolding the blade and firing. The shield broke and was instantly replaced by another.
"Stop it!"
"I promised her I wouldn't let anyone use her," Narwhal said solemnly. "She would rather be dead than be the tool of a tyrant or a villain." She set her lips in a line and turned on another server. "I keep my promises."
"I'm here to save her! We're going to shut her down and—"
"And then what?" Narwhal looked at me from the corner of her eye. "You'll make this room your Alamo? Fight the entire Protectorate to keep her safe? You can't do that."
"I don't have to fight the entire Protectorate! Just Cauldron!"
"The boogeyman doesn't matter," Narwhal said. "You can't fight the entire Protectorate and they will fight you over this. Hospitals are failing. 911 calls aren't making it through. Heroes are fighting heroes. Dragon won't be allowed to do as she pleases anymore. She'll be more watched than ever, and when Teacher has his way—"
Teacher? "You know—"
"Stop being a child, little girl."
The words chilled me. It reminded me of Mrs. Knott's words after the fire. My own thoughts. Just a bullied little girl.
I checked the timer on the GN Drive. There wouldn't be enough. I'd already used it not that long ago.
"You're too soft for this," Narwhal accused. "Dragon will become a tool of the Protectorate, and when that falls and Teacher swoops in, she'll be his tool."
It wasn't going to end that way. I wouldn't let it.
"I keep my promises," she repeated.
"I can break her chains," I pleaded, sword bashing at her shields. "She won't be a tool!"
Narwhal ignored me, turning her hand on the fourth server and shredding it.
"Don't ask permission," she mused. "You'll never get anything. Choose your own path." She closed her eyes for a moment, nearly whispering. "Show the world how you intend to live."
She closed her hand and the sixth server tore and sheared.
I threw my feet forward, reversing course and putting distance between her shields and me. The Buster Sword swung forward and I swapped the longsword into my other hand. I charged as Narwhal turned to the next server and thrust forward.
"BURN RED!"
TRANS-AM
The air exploded and I shattered the shield between us. Narwhal caught my sword in another shield and then raised a second as I thrust the Buster Sword forward. I pushed the thrusters harder, screaming, "Black! Protect Dragon!"
The robot hopped off Exia's back and scrambled for the floor.
I forced Narwhal off her feet as she layered force fields together. She hit the wall with her feet first, craning her neck up to look me in the eye.
We didn't say anything.
I spun Exia around, yanking my longsword free and aiming for her shoulder. She blocked with another force field and swiped her hand up. I blocked with my shield, watching as the field dug into the E-Carbon and dented it.
The Siberian couldn't touch me, but Narwhal could? How did that make sense?
I dodged right at the last second.
I darted back as two more tried to cut at Exia's limbs, firing my longsword and GN pistol. The fields held and Narwhal launched herself from the wall. Shimmering shards formed around her and shot toward me. The shields projected and I swung Exia to the left to avoid them. More tried to intercept my path and I ascended toward the ceiling.
I switched to the sonic cameras and scanned the ceiling.
There.
Narwhal landed on her shoulder, swiping her arms forward and projecting a series of force fields that crossed one another's paths. I spun Exia in a roll and fired through a small gap. She raised a shield to protect herself, and I dove through the platform into the space below.
Narwhal was more experienced than me.
It showed when a net of fields cut down and tried to catch me. I avoided them with a long arc toward the floor before throwing my legs forward, flipping Exia to face upward, and then blasting myself straight ahead.
Narwhal tried to dodge as I went through the platform beneath her and caught her torso in an arm bar.
A shield dug into Exia's leg, just below the knee. A warning told me I'd lost control of the thrusters and the actuator was damaged. I kept going until Narwhal's back hit the wall. That got through. I heard her grunt and saw her grit her teeth. The ceiling gave way, and I kept pouring on the power, pushing her through one ceiling after another.
The air ventilation system probably wasn't designed to be used as an impromptu elevator.
We smashed through a fan and two filters before entering the factory floor above, and I kept going until I went through the roof. The sun shined behind me as I released Narwhal and quickly turned on her. The thrusters fired and I flew away.
"It's not that easy."
Narwhal clung to Exia's shoulder, a force field driven through her own hand and pinning it to my suit's shoulder. I spun, trying to shake her. The force field came down and cut the left arm clean off.
She turned two fields into a vice and brought them down onto Exia's left shoulder. E-Carbon groaned and cracked, then shattered as a second set of fields came down on the first. The limb tore, twisting and bending loosely in the air before cutting clean off and falling away.
I swiped the Buster Sword at her, ignoring the alarm bells sounding in my ear.
Shard like fields showered down from Narwhal as she fell in pursuit of me. I dodged them as best I could. Several impacted my armor and I got the overwhelming sense that she could kill me if she wanted to.
She could do that, right? Narwhal could bisect people with her power. Literally make a force field directly in them if they were close enough.
I kicked and dodged. It didn't work so well. The movements were awkward. I hadn't expected to lose control of a leg and all the thrusters on it.
This hurts.
We tumbled toward the ground, the distance growing between us as I fell faster. I got Exia righted before hitting the ground. I fired my pistol, but Narwhal surrounded herself in a hive of shields.
I skated back, ignoring the cries of people around us as she landed, broke her fields, and broke into a run.
Why does it hurt?
Standing wasn't an option. I hovered, gliding over the ground and firing my pistol as she charged. She swung a field at me horizontally, so I ducked. It almost led me into a vertical field aimed at Exia's undamaged leg. I drove my suit into the ground. I whipped my suit around, and launched Exia into a spin that brought the Buster Sword down on Narwhal's shoulder.
She caught it with a force field, but it bowed from the blow and she went to a knee with a faint flicker of pain on her face. I raised the sword and swung again, but Narwhal pinned the blade with overlapping fields and stepped into me.
Why are we fighting when we both want to protect her?
"You're still too soft," Narwhal chided.
I saw her hand and grimaced. I ejected the Buster Sword, freeing my arm in time to strike her jaw. She stumbled and the fields around the sword faltered. I flew up, striking her chest with my knee. She recovered and swiped a field into my already damaged leg.
The limb crashed to the ground.
I ignored it.
Because we're against one another now.
That's all there was to it. What we wanted wasn't the same. So we fought. Because only one of us could have our way.
"You're not killing her," I snapped.
Exia's hand grabbed the Buster Sword from the air.
I swung the sword down and Narwhal's body hit the ground. A purple field held against the blade, barely holding the edge from hitting her directly. I swung again and she rolled, swiping a field directly up. I spun out of it, swinging my leg over the ground and kicking Narwhal into the air.
She tumbled, throwing shards into my armor as I aimed the sword.
"I won't let you!"
Narwhal brought force fields down on the blade and blocked the tip. More formed around Exia's head, clouding my vision as they began to press down.
It wouldn't help.
The Buster Sword's blade snapped open. The stake poked forward. The capacitors charged. The timer rang in my ear.
Narwhal's eyes went wide. A matrix of fields fell between us.
I pulled the trigger.
The Gungnir fired and the fields shattered. Narwhal was caught in the stomach and the stake drove her into the exterior walls of the facility. Trans-Am ended with a snap and Exia's damaged leg exploded behind me as the undamaged one failed to hold up the weight.
Exia crashed on its back hard, bouncing me forward into the chest plate. The HUD flickered, and where it didn't I could see the sky. Had she tried to crush my skull and failed to make it through the helmet?
I didn't linger on it.
Straining, I forced Exia onto its side and pushed the suit to rise into the air. The movement was slow and languid, crippled by the exhaustion of GN Particles. Turning my head, I commanded the helmet to pull away. The HUD was shattered and I couldn't see through it.
Sun met my cheeks and wind ruffled my hair.
As the dust cleared, I could make out Narwhal clearly, a hand clutching at the stake buried in her gut. Blood came from her mouth, and she coughed.
I blinked, barely able to keep Exia upright as she met my gaze. One eye was bloodshot, and the other squinted. I couldn't tell what she was feeling. Her expression was back to being bored.
The injury was bad. I hadn't meant to—
A group of PRT troopers broke into a run. A few aimed at me, and others went right to Narwhal.
Shit.
I retreated further into the air, watching them warily.
That's when I noticed Narwhal's expression change.
As two troopers knelt over her and looked at her wound, she smiled.
Why is she smiling?
If she didn't want to do it, then why do it at all? What good—She stopped smiling, her face twisting in anger and her lips mouthed the words.
Behind me?
"That's enough."
My heart seized up.
"This ends here."
I spun, barely able to make out her black and grey costume before Alexandria grabbed the sword from my hand and snapped it. She flung one piece over her shoulder and threw the other into Exia's remaining leg. I crashed to the ground, and she lingered over me.
She looked down at me with a stoic expression, and I glared at her.
Damn her.
I didn't have anything left. I barely managed Narwhal. Bravado aside, Armsmaster couldn't be in good shape right now. Black couldn't stop Alexandria on his own.
"Stay there," Alexandria stated, with a tone that made it clear she wasn't tolerating anything other than exactly what she wanted. "We'll sort you and your machines out later."
What was she even doing here?
The Triumvirate didn't run the Protectorate anymore. They had no legal authority. What was I thinking? They never had any legal authority! They just did what they wanted. Of course they weren't going to sit in the background doing nothing. They'd never do that.
She started to turn and I did the only thing I could think to do.
I grabbed the shortsword from my waist and shot the blade at her. It struck home, right in the center of her back. The GN particles burst from the blade.
Alexandria didn't care.
Brilliant Taylor, brilliant.
She spun around in a quick motion, grabbed the blade, snapped it between her fingers, and glared at me.
"Fine then."
She surged forward, fist raised and aimed for my face.
The air exploded and my hair whipped behind my head. I saw Alexandria moving through the blast unperturbed, my head achingly exposed and unprotected. A foot came down on her wrist and another struck her in the chest. She retreated of her own accord, circling the intruder as green light shimmered in the smoke.
I think I started crying.
Queen Gundam hovered over me, gaze set on Alexandria and saber drawn.
Veda.
